Here you can follow our sailing from Sweden to the Mediterranian.We have a new yacht s/y Carpe Diem, Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 40. Of practical reasons we are still using the homepage of our previous yacht s/y Xavita.

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What a Christmas! Sure we were prepared for a different Christmas, but not SO different!!!! However, calls to our children and grandchildren cheered us up.

The guide book had given us too high expectations, which is the reason for the negative comments above. We are longing for the Caribbean and away from all blowing and chilly weather, only 24°C!

Enough bad feelings!

We sailed from Sao Nicolau in excess of 6 knots with double reefed sails. Our friends in Kahiba disappeared behind the waves. We passed the island Santa Luzia, but Lucia was not at home, she was on duty up north in the Scandinavian countries to celebrate the Lucia Day (13 December). Arriving in the island Sao Vicente and Mindelo, the second largest city in Cape Verde. The island was discovered 22 January 1462 on the day of holy Vicente, hence the name. 30 cruising yachts lies at anchor and same number are moored in the marina. All are underway for Brazil or the Caribbean islands. We recognize several yachts from previous harbors. The bay contains all sorts of ships from an oil drill rig to rusty coffins and new cruise ships. A sailing ship with Swedish flag lies at the quay. It shows up to be the sail training ship “Gunilla” from Öckerö at our home town Göteborg. She has a high school onboard and the students are also crewing beside their studies. We select anchoring in place of berthing at the swelly marina. Two Germans have started this marina, the only one in the Cape Verde archipelago, and they try as much as possible to keep a high standard.

Also in this harbor young men and women ask for a westbound ride. It is quite risky to take an unknown person onboard. Even if there will not be any mutiny, you may be economically responsible for the hitchhiker There are horror stories on this subject going around in every harbor.

Days are spent with small jobs on the boat. Setting up more nets in front of shelves to keep items in place and more eyebolts where to fix heavy items. The main gets chafe protection, the sheets also get chafe protection where they pass over the guardrails, lines are set between the mast steps and topshrouds to stop the main from getting caught when running. Many strange sailing terms! Fills up the diesel tank with 160 litres and all jerry cans with 130 litres. Even if the trade winds drop dead, which is very unlikely, we can motor half way to the Caribbean! Also the gas bottle is filled. That is another story. Only Sweden has Swedish gas bottles! These can normally not be filled abroad. In Mindelo you go to the gas depot, knock on the green door next to the gate, leave the bottle and have it back filled after some hour. The new self service laundry is happy to receive our mountain of laundry.

Today the gale is blowing again and Xavita is swinging and pulls the anchor. Additional chain is laid out and another anchor is hung on the chain to eliminate the jerking. Several yachts are leaving westbound, but we will wait until the wind force becomes more comfortable. Checking the grib files daily to see the weather situation for the coming weeks.

As we have had stomach troubles for some time we went to a private small hospital for treatment. A very nice and modern institution with friendly staff. No queues to line up for! It was funny when we had to communicate with a doctor who only spoke Portuguese. It went well with signs and some Spanish words. The lab tests showed we both had salmonella! We got an injection and a friendly sea captain on visit in the hospital drove us to the pharmacy for our antibiotic treatment. We were very satisfied with the hospital and the treatment.

The New Years Eve was like the Christmas Eve flat without a good dinner and drinks. Greeted the New Year in apple juice with our friends Eva and Gunnar. At midnight there were fantastic fireworks and all the ships blew their horns.